So. That was fun, right?
There is no way anyone filled a BINGO card this year. If they did, I would look askance at them as potentially masterminding some of this nonsense. Reviewing the things that happened in 2020, I find it difficult to believe that was all in the past twelve months. If you’ve been on TikTok, you’ve undoubtedly seen one of the many videos of a misunderstanding between God and an angel regarding a decade of disasters in one year. Watch it here – some language near the end.
I’m not so sure that isn’t what happened.
Here’s a quick rundown of the 2020 events I can recall:
- Australia caught on fire.
- Tiger King was everywhere.
- COVID-19 made its debut, and refuses to leave.
- Murder hornets crashed the party in the U.S. and a plague of locusts devastated East Africa.
- Racial injustice was given a much-needed global stage.
- California, Oregon, and Washington caught on fire.
- Iowa endured a rare ‘land hurricane’ and now everyone knows what a derecho is.
- We lost a multitude of actors, musicians, authors, politicians, athletes, scientists, and cultural icons including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eddie Van Halen, Chadwick Bosemen, Kobe Bryant, Grant Imihara, John Lewis, and Alex Trebek.
- Presidential Election. ‘Nuff said.
My family and I have been beyond fortunate, and we’ve even seen some shining lights in this year’s darkness. Our youngest moved to Chicago for college, our middle earned a prestigious academic opportunity, our oldest got engaged, and I signed with a literary agent. (Those last two events happened the same weekend in March, at the same time the world fell apart.) The summer was spent planning a small wedding and editing my first novel, and I can’t say there weren’t tears during both. In January, we’ll watch our daughter marry her best friend, then my novel will be sent into the world to find a publisher who will love it as much as I do.
Not such a boring start to the new year for the old Clark Clan.
Tomorrow is January 1, 2021. I hope against hope that the new year will be different. That it—and we—will be better. Perhaps all the trials we’ve been through were stepping stones or growing pains or lessons to be collectively learned. This year, I plan to take what the universe has to offer and make the best damn lemonade the world has ever seen.